It comes as no surprise to me that such an accomplished writer as L'Engle should have strong opinions when it comes to the variety of words available to authors. "We cannot Name or be Named without language," she says. Even more emphatically: "I might even go to the extreme of declaring that the deliberate diminution of vocabulary by a dictator, or an advertising copywriter, is anti-Christian." (37)
I find it interesting that she expresses such a strong preference for picking up vocabulary from context rather than stopping to look words up - rather the way she mentions that she never tries to jot down her dreams in the middle of the night. It jerks her away from the immediacy. I generally find that I don't stop to look words up either - unless I'm reading something online and find I just have to dash off to dictionary.com to find out what that word means. More often, though, I just absorb words and find myself using them.
Reading this section got me thinking about vocabulary, and I started jotting down some of the more colorful words sprinkled throughout the book. Just writing them is reinforcement, looking them up moreso. Here are a few...
divertissement, interstices, pellucid, salutary, piosity, temerity, vagaries, vicissitudes, castigating, salvific, indigents, licensiousness, ousia...
And the one that really made me sit up and take notice: pusillanimous (contemptibly fearful). Now there's a mouthful!
3 comments:
Oh beautiful list, Erin. Can you write a poem using all of them now? :-) Kidding! Kidding! (Although if anyone could, you could...!)
Madeleine does have a great vocabulary, doesn't she? Makes me realize I need to expand my repertoire of words when writing!
Hehe, that would be a challenge indeed!
It's always a kick to discover a new word. Doesn't happen as often as it used to; that makes it all the more fun!
There are some words that I can remember exactly when I encountered them for the first time. "Magnanimous," from a comment my dad made as we were watching Quantum Leap. "Efficacious," from an Irish Rovers song. "Snogging"... well, I think you can guess where that one came from! ;)
Hee! Yes indeed, I learned the word "snogging" from dear Harry too. Along with "pitch" and "trainers" and "jumper."
One of my favorite learning-a-new-word memories was when I learned the word "spelunking" when I was about 10 or 11 (reading a Trixie Belden mystery where they explored caves). I searched long and hard for a place to drop that one in casual conversation!
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